Count down! July the 19th 1956 at 23.58! Here I was, ready to upset my Hometown Ratingen. And this was done by the loudest cry they ever heard in the area. Of course every baby cries at birth, but I wanted to be better, and so I cried for two weeks straight.

Very early I realized that my profession was going in the direction of music, and so my Christmas wish came true. How happy I was, 8 years old and under the Christmas tree was my first guitar. I couldn't contain the joy and the anger. Father Christmas had given me a children guitar — a plastic one! — "He has no knowledge of what a professional guitar is?" "How can I compose with this thing.........."

So, just the way I am, I was complaining till my Daddy soften his heart and finally bought me a guitar. HELL! It was an acoustic guitar.- Not only that, but also it was so big, I couldn´t even hold it. But I was very proud.
My cousin showed me the first chords: "Drunten auf der grünen Au', steht a Birnbaum schrau schrau juche",-was the first song I could play and everybody who wanted to hear it or not, had too! All right, All right, I was growing and the "Birnbaum" had to make space for THE LORDS. Great all in English. In front of the mirror I was rockin' and screaming the devil out of my soul. But than also THE LORDS couldn't turn me on anymore:ROLLING STONES, Jimmy Hendriks, LED ZEPPLIN, THE WHO, DEEP PURPLE, and so on, were getting in my soul. Acoustic guitar had to go out of my way, and electric guitar was a must!

Grandma — always my favorite — was the answer - I was the only grandchild out of a historical music family that continued with music. Of course Grandma bought me an electric guitar. What a great one. Four pick-ups and a lot of buttons, 249 DM.! Very good price for the time. "O.K. let me hear it" — "Grandma you can't hear anything without an amp" — "But it's electric put it in the plug." — "Grandma...... jeeses". The tape recorder of my brother was not lasting long, but until now there is no company that can produce an amp with such a great feed back.

Very early followed my first band with the great name EXITUS (dead). And quickly it was like that!!! And I also found out I was not a Vivaldi on guitar. In the next band I was then sitting behind the drums. The skins could'nt survive my animal power; I thought so. But the main reason was that I had no clue of how to tune them. It didn't matter, it was great fun, and I was not that bad. But also this was not my instrument.

Somehow I was finally sticking to bass, and my first one was a very old Höfner Beatles bass, and I was stupid enough to sell it. After realizing more or less that I needed only one finger to play, the band RELAX from Düsseldorf was looking for a bass player. At this time this band was already very known; of course I had to call! Fifteen years old, the bass in one hand, and balls in the other I went to Düsseldorf, and at the train station Jürgen picked me up. My first meeting with my destiny. My audition was very quick! Don't call us we call you!
With the bass in one hand and broken balls in the other, I went home. I swore to myself: Beware, I'll be back!
I never lost contact with Jürgen. We saw each other often in town, until he disappeared.
After that I wanted to try something intellectual and got into a jazz rock combo. Well, at this time people tried a lot of things. Roundly it was nothing for me and afterwards I debarked at a band from Duesseldorf which was called SIN CITY. Here I spent 10 year and we played all over Germany. Sadly we only made one record "Call Me A Rebel" - but it was a great time.
Naturally everybody knowed each other in the music scene so that I got an offer from BULLET in 1981. Short after I hanged up I went to the living room and told my wife (at that time): "Bye, I become professional now!"... and I was gone. The tempting chance to sign at Dieter Dierks didn't let me consider much. That way we started: "Execution", "No Mercy", "Rough Cut" were the records which followed. After guitar player Paul left the band Jürgen came back in my mind and I found him in Hamburg. One phone call was enough and he was here; welcome in BULLET. At that time we already met Udo and Stefan because ACCEPT was at Dierks, too.
Sadly BULLET broke up. Nobody knew exactly why it happened and everybody went his own way. Anyway I couldn't leave it at that and that's the reason I called Jürgen some day: "Let's do something together"; no sooner said than done! Together with BULLET drummer Martin Werner we originated ROARING CRY. We did cover songs like hell which other cover bands didn't dare to try. The album "Two Wild For You" had a lot of good reviews and we played three years with this lineup.
Doing covers forever becomes boring in the long run; next the weather and generally. Somehow I debarked with my family in Ibiza (I have one daughter; unfortunately not at my place). Great weather and super people. I used all powers of persuasion to Jürgen and hey presto he was here. But in Ibiza you have to earn money, too. My current wife Luciana is a drummer and so we composed and played a fare-thee-well. Jürgen opened a guitar school and I published a daily newspaper.
Oh well, then it happend. Unsuspected I made a report in a club in which Jürgen educated, too. I looked stupid as a remarkable face knocked over me. "Udo?!" "Fitty?!"... Oh well that's the way it goes. We talked about ancient times, the weather and we enjoyed the Hierbas (herbal liqueur). We had a lot of fun and as Udo and his family departed I said to him by the way "Call me if you need a bass player". Said! Forgotten! Until the phone ringed: "Here is Udo, would you like to..." Well... you know the answer!